


got those wayfarers on

by somehowunbroken



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 10:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4742132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's all Bitty's fault. Indirectly. That's his story, and Chowder's sticking to it.</p><p>[In which Chowder does his best to matchmake from the other side of the continent over summer break, and is immensely pleased with the results.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	got those wayfarers on

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mutuisanimis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutuisanimis/gifts).



> mutuisanimis : Ok I realise this is somewhat counterintuitive but will you headcanon nurseydex stuff for a little to help me get my emotions together?  
> me: yes absolutely
> 
> how could i resist any part of that request? or, really, why would i want to?
> 
> title is paraphrased from don henley's "boys of summer." so many of those lyrics were considered as possible titles.

_It's Bitty's fault, really._

_Well, okay, maybe it's only sort of Bitty's fault. But he's the one who gives Chris the idea, even if it's probably not what he'd had in mind when he'd insisted that everyone set up an Instagram account before leaving for the summer. "It'll help us keep in touch," he'd insisted at their Haus-only end-of-year party. "It's just pictures! Y'all won't have to write a single word if you don't want to."_

_Chris is pretty sure that was meant specifically for Jack, who had lowered his camera and fiddled with the strap instead of meeting anyone's eyes, but Chris had been looking more at Nursey and Dex across the room. They'd been arguing in their not-really-mad kind of way, where it was like they were both enjoying themselves even though they sounded pissed off, and if his life was a movie, Chris would probably have had a giant lightbulb click on over his head at that exact moment._

_Just pictures. No words. No explaining._

_This, Chris had decided, was something he could work with._

-0-

"Why," Will mutters. "Why is this happening to my life."

He really doesn't care about Instagram, but Bitty had seemed so hopeful that it would somehow keep them all in touch over the summer, and Will certainly wasn't going to be the one to break his heart on that front. His summer so far has been almost all lobster fishing all the time, but he's done his best to put up a bunch of random pictures. Most of them have obviously been lobster-related, but hey, he's only got so much to work with. He'd figured that nobody would actually look at them, but when he'd checked into his account, he'd found that they'd all been favorited.

By Nursey.

Nursey, whose entire Instagram is, apparently, filled with ridiculous crap. Will feels a lot better about his lobster pictures once he browses through Nursey's collection, which has zero pictures of him or his friends or what he's doing this summer. Apparently he's had it for longer than just this summer, too, because one of the pictures is a travel coffee mug sitting on top of his Intro to British Literature textbook, and he'd taken that class their first semester.

Not that Will has been keeping track.

But yeah, it's all full of sorta-artsy pictures of coffee and leaves and a scarf wrapped around a tree trunk, tagged with things like #amazing and #nature and #samwellisincredible. Will has no idea what to do with the fact that the only person he can find in any of the pictures is the shoulder of his own jersey; it's taken like Nursey was right behind him and snapped it just before they stepped onto the ice. It's completely possible that that's exactly what had happened, too; between all of the practices and games and random ice time they'd had together over the year, Will is sure that Nursey could've taken it without him noticing anything.

Well, obviously, he thinks, scowling at himself. Since it's there, tagged with #icetime and #defense and #swawesome, and Will had no idea until just now, _obviously_ Nursey has taken it without him noticing.

Will clicks over to Chowder's account in an act of self-preservation. There are no surprises here; it's picture after picture of Chowder's beaming face and shark after shark after shark. Apparently he'd been to the aquarium which, again, isn't surprising. Will grins at one of them, Chowder crouching down next to some kid, pointing up at the sharks swimming near the top of the tank.

The next picture makes him pause. It's Chowder and the kid again, but this time they're turned towards the camera, and he's got his smile on full-blast as he looks down at her. She's a cute kid, no doubt, but she's got Chowder's cheekbones and he's holding her hand, and Will has to stop his first sort of panicked thought, because there's no way. There's no way Chowder has a kid he hasn't told them about.

Will takes a deep breath and shakes his head. Bitty had said words weren't necessary, but that doesn't mean he can't use them at all, and Instagram totally lets you comment.

 _bro, hey, who’s the kid?_ Will types out.

He stares at the screen for a few seconds, silently willing Chowder to be waiting with his phone in hand for someone to ask, but nothing pops up immediately. He makes himself pull up the summer reading list that Nursey had sent him to see if there's anything that sounds even remotely interesting on there, and he's narrowed it down to _Of Mice and Men_ (he likes that it's short, and Nursey had been totally appalled that he hadn't read it in high school) and _The Namesake_ (longer, but he remembers his junior year English teacher reading it in the lunchroom, turning the pages so quickly he had trouble believing she was actually reading, so engrossed that she almost missed the bell at the end of the period; he's curious to find out what could have had her so distracted) when he gets a notification that Chowder has finally responded.

_that’s cammie!_

Will snorts. That's totally helpful, right. _that’s great, man, but who is she?_

_isn’t she adorable? #cutestkid #seriously #theswawesomest_

Great. He's either avoiding the question, or he's being his normal Chowdery self and not getting what Will is actually asking. He hesitates over his next question, though, because if he's wrong he'll look like an idiot in front of the entire internet. Or, well, at least his team, which is maybe actually worse.

Maybe Bitty can help, Will thinks as he reaches for his phone and taps out a text.

-0-

It takes Bitty a full day to respond; he apologises when he finally does reply, and Will has to admit that the mystery of the kid in Chowder's photos had taken a backseat to slight worry that Bitty wasn't glued to his phone. Bitty texts a picture of himself and Jack, though, and Will figures that's explanation enough of why he'd been too busy to text.

And, for as long as Will had had to wait, Bitty is no help _at all_.

  
  


At least this time Will is reasonably sure that Bitty knows that he's digging for information. It's kind of unlike him to not explain the situation, but then again, Bitty's not the kind of guy to just blurt out things that other people are trying to keep secret. Which means that there is a secret to keep, or Bitty would just tell him.

Will frowns at his phone, hoping that Bitty will take pity and throw him a bone, but nothing else pops up on the screen. He's trying to think of other options, other ways he can find out without just outright asking _hey, chowder, do you have some sort of secret baby you hide in california while you're at samwell?_ because there's no way he wants to ever say those words out loud.

The problem resolves itself. Or, well, not the actual problem, because that would be way too easy, but the problem of what to do next. Will groans out of habit when he sees the smirking face pop up on his phone's screen, but he doesn't hesitate to accept the call.

"Hey," he greets.

"Dex," Nursey says. "Tell me Chowder isn't hiding a secret baby in California."

"Uh," Will says. "No can do, man."

Nursey sighs heavily. "Do we just ask him?"

"Not it," Will says immediately. "Also, _fuck_ and _no_. Can you imagine how much chirping we'd get from everyone else if we were totally making it up?"

"We can't be, though," Nursey argues. "I mean, there's a kid. The kid looks like him." There's noise in the background like Nursey's moving around. "The more I look at it, the more I think - holy _fuck_."

"What?" Will asks, alarmed. "Is it-"

"Pull it up," Nursey says urgently. "Refresh. Whatever. New pic."

Will puts his phone on speaker and tosses it onto his desk as he leans forward. It takes him a minute to pull up Chowder's Instagram, but when he does-

"Oh my god," he says flatly. "That can't be. It… can't."

"You see it too, right," Nursey says. "You are seeing that image with your own two eyes. I'm not imagining it?"

Chowder has Cammie in his arms; it looks like they're at the zoo this time. Will is barely paying attention to where they are, though, because Cammie's wearing a teal shirt that has _#1 KID_ printed on the front of it. Cammie's body is in the way of most of the text on Chowder's shirt, but from what Will can see of it-

" _#1 D_ could end a lot of ways," Will says after a moment. "That… doesn't have to say #1 Dad on it."

There's a pause, and yeah, Will knows that's kind of weak. "I don't know what to think," Nursey admits after a minute. "But, man, we might have to prepare ourselves for how to handle it. If it's true."

"I don't want to handle anything," Will says emphatically. "There has to be some way to just ask him. Right? Without it being weird?"

"No," Nursey says, and damn him for being right, anyway. "I mean, yeah, we're gonna have to ask, but it's gonna be weird no matter what."

"Shit," Will sighs. "Well, I still call not it. Let me know how that goes, okay?"

"Like hell," Nursey says flatly. There are more shuffling sounds. "It's your turn to house-sit, yeah?"

Will's eyes flick to the calendar. He doesn't remember telling Nursey about his schedule, but he's right; Will is the one home watching the house for the next ten days while his family goes deep trawling. "Right."

"Okay," Nursey says. "Address?"

"Why?" Will asks suspiciously.

Nursey makes an annoyed sound. "So I can send you glitter bombs in the mail. Why do you think, Poindexter? I'll drive up and we can figure out a plan from there."

Will opens his mouth to say no, but for some reason what comes out is, "Yeah, sure."

-0-

It takes Nursey a day and a half to make the six hour drive from Boston. It's not that Will is waiting anxiously or anything, but now that they've got the beginnings of a plan, he wants to get on with it.

"Hey, man," Nursey says as he climbs out of his car. Will can only blink at him for a moment, because with as much money as that thing probably cost, there's no way he had to get one that small, but whatever. If he wants to unfold himself every time he gets out from behind the wheel, that's no business of Will's.

"Hey." Will nods his head at the house. "Bring your stuff in and we'll figure out dinner or whatever, and we can talk about this whole… thing."

"Works for me," Nursey says.

Dinner is shrimp tacos, mostly because Will isn't in the mood to do anything fancy and the shrimp is already cooked. Nursey takes a cautious bite of his first one and then very clearly tries not to look shocked, but he pretty much inhales the rest of that taco and then two more, so Will feels safe in being smug about his cooking prowess. They eat in silence, but there are only so many tacos, so before long they're staring at each other across the table.

"So," Nursey says eventually. "Have you thought of a way to make this not totally awkward?"

"Nope," Will says. "You?"

Nursey shakes his head. "I really don't think there _is_ a way. I mean, look at our options here. Either we're right, and he just never told us, or we're wrong, and we look really dumb."

Will groans. "I can't handle not knowing, though. I think I'd rather figure out how to handle the fallout than never know what was going on."

"Yeah," Nursey agrees. "So I guess we should just call him?"

"Probably," Will says. "We should just… do it. Get it over with."

"Let's clean up first," Nursey suggests, and it's probably an avoidance tactic, but the dishes do need to be washed, so Will nods.

Fifteen minutes later, the dishes are washed and dried, and Will and Nursey are up in Will's bedroom. Nursey's perched on the bed, and Will is sitting at his desk chair, staring at his phone.

"We should just do it," Nursey says finally. "Put it on speaker. Rip off the band-aid."

"Yeah," Will says. He takes a deep breath. "Okay. Let's do this."

He grabs his phone and taps Chowder's name. As soon as it starts to ring, he switches it to speaker and puts it on the edge of his desk.

"Hey! Dex!" Chowder starts as he answers. "How’s your summer? How’s the lobster fishing?" There's a slight pause. "Or lobstering? What’s it even called?"

Nursey glances over at Will. "Chowder, hey, man."

There's a much more significant pause this time. "Nursey?"

Will sighs. "Hey, uh, you’re on speaker. And it’s lobster fishing, and it’s going fine."

"Oh, awesome. That’s good to hear! Nursey, how’s your summer? Are you in Maine, or oh, Dex, did you-"

Thankfully Nursey cuts in before Chowder can really get settled into his ramble. "Chowder, is Cammie your kid?"

This time the silence seems to stretch on and on. Will's not holding his breath, not exactly, but he's pretty sure Nursey is listening just as closely as he is. Will's the one to bite the bullet this time. "Chowder? You there?"

Chowder starts laughing. "No! Geez! She’s my cousin’s kid. I’m just doing a lot of babysitting this summer. You guys really think if I had a kid I’d be able to keep her a secret?" He breaks off to laugh again. "I mean, especially a kid as cute as Cammie."

"She looks a lot like you," Nursey ventures.

"My whole family has super strong genes," Chowder says proudly. "But she's not mine. I swear."

"Your shirt the other day at the zoo," Will says hesitantly.

There's a sound like Chowder's laughing but trying to muffle it. " _That's_ what you guys are freaking out about? It says _#1 Dora_. I made hers, and then I let her pick what got to go on mine, and she's been on this huge Dora the Explorer kick lately. It's a great show, did you know? She's really starting to pick up-"

Will doesn't exactly tune Chowder out at that point, but he does take a moment to let out a long, slow breath. He can see Nursey flop back against the bed out of the corner of his eye, and he has to fight against a reflexive, relieved grin.

"-but yeah, I actually have to go," Chowder says, and Will tunes back in. "I'm picking Cammie up and taking her to the pool. I got her shark floaties, and they have little fins on them."

"Be real, you're jealous they won't fit you," Nursey says from where he's flopped across the bed.

"A little," Chowder admits freely. "I'm gonna take so many pictures of her wearing them, though. It's gonna be the 'swawesomest."

"You have fun with that," Will says. "We'll look on Instagram later."

"Great!" Chowder says cheerily. "Have a good day, you guys! I'll talk to you soon."

The phone call disconnects, and Will just stares across the bed at Nursey for a moment. Nursey stares right back at him.

"So we don't have to figure out how to deal with Chowdad," Nursey finally says.

Will cracks up. "Oh my god, how long have you been sitting on that one?" he asks, but Nursey's laughing too hard to respond.

-0-

So the thing is, Nursey came up with plans to stay until Will's family came back in. They figured they'd need the time, once they confirmed the whole thing with Chowder, but now they're facing down seven days of only having each other for company, without the distraction of needing to come up with a plan.

"So," Nursey says eventually. "Movie marathon?"

"Yes," Will replies instantly, because at least if there's a movie on he'll have something to focus on other than Nursey's everything. "Maybe, hey. You drive back into town and get us some food, I'll set up Netflix in the living room?"

"Solid," Nursey agrees. "By 'food' you totally mean 'shit that will in no way be on our nutrition plan,' right?"

"Uh, yeah," Will says. "It's July. We have, like, three solid weeks of being able to do whatever we want before we have to start worrying about all the ways in which Lardo is going to kick our asses into shape for the season."

"Doritos," Nursey says, sighing a little dreamily. "Bro. _Doritos_."

"Do not come back here with just Doritos," Will warns. "There had better be some Little Debbies in there, that's all I'm saying."

Nursey rolls off of Will's bed and tosses him an easy salute. "You got it, man. You got directions for me, or should I just look on my GPS?"

Will helps Nursey find the nearest grocery store on his GPS, and then sets to making the living room movie-marathon-ready. It doesn't take him long to get his laptop hooked up to the television; he looks through his movie queue, but he's pretty sure Nursey has no interest in watching the stuff he's got picked out, and he doesn't really want to piss Nursey off tonight. Whatever, they'll figure it out.

He spends the rest of the half hour Nursey's gone hauling most of the spare bedding down to the living room. The sofa in the living room is old and kind of saggy; his mom insists it's just broken in perfectly, but Will has had more than one friend struggle to get out of it, which is kind of a trial if you're not used to it. He's found it's easier if he just loads it up with blankets and pillows and stuff beforehand.

Nursey comes tromping back into the house just after dark, while Will is searching through the lowest rated crap he can find on Rotten Tomatoes. He's got a few good suggestions, and he's pretty sure that some of the ones that aren't on Netflix are things he's seen on his brother's DVD shelf.

"Junk food acquired," Nursey announces, dropping - holy shit - four grocery bags on the coffee table. "And, as requested, Little Debbies. Hope you like the brownies, bro, because it was that or pumpkin rolls, and I am totally positive they've been there since last fall."

"Brownies are great," Will says. It's probably true about the pumpkin rolls, too. "What else?"

"Movie snacks," Nursey says proudly. "Got a bunch of candy, some popcorn we can stick in the microwave. And Doritos, because fuck you, dude, they're the best."

"Doritos smell like feet," Will replies, settling into the argument they've had at least a dozen times. "Gross, unwashed feet. The inside of Ransom's skates."

"Rude," Nursey says, sniffing as he pulls the last of the food out of the bags. "So, what are we watching?"

Will spins his laptop around. "I don't want to watch any of your artsy hipster crap, and you don't want to watch my action movies," he starts. "I figured - terrible movie marathon. We can make fun of as much shit as we want without wanting to kill each other?"

Nursey's whole face lights up. "Dex, that's fucking genius," he proclaims. "Not the super, super shitty stuff, though. Like, at least a ten on Rotten Tomatoes, or it just gets so bad you don't even know what to do."

"Sounds like the voice of experience, there," Will says, raising an eyebrow.

Nursey grimaces. "Look, man, all I'm saying is I'm not sitting through _Master of Disguise_ again for anything. I'd rather watch Bitty run out of flour and sugar at the same time when neither Stop'n'Shop is open."

Will shudders. He's heard the story, okay. "Deal," he promises, clicking through his selections. "Hey, this one's not on Netflix, but my brother has it on DVD."

" _Man-Thing_ ," Nursey says, studying the Rotten Tomatoes page. "What, it's a superhero movie?"

"I think?" Will frowns, turning the laptop back towards himself. "I mean, it's based on comics. But it's supposed to be godawful."

"I'm in," Nursey says. "You get the DVD, I'll make us some popcorn."

"Awesome," Will says. He goes upstairs and grabs the DVD from Harry's room, making sure to leave a note on his desk to let him know that he'd borrowed it. Will doesn't put it past himself to totally forget what he did with it; this way Harry will know to look in the living room if he wants it.

Nursey's on the sofa with a huge bowl of popcorn when Will gets back. He pats the spot beside him, which is when Will remembers the flaw in the "pad the shit out of the sofa" plan: it takes up a lot of the actual sofa room, so he's going to be stuck right next to Nursey during their movie.

Well. He could sit on the floor. Except that would be totally weird, so he just sticks the DVD in and slumps in the seat next to Nursey.

Ten minutes in, any awkwardness that Will had felt is totally gone in favor of the two of them mocking every detail they can. _Man-Thing_ is just as awful as Rotten Tomatoes promised, and both he and Nursey seem to be enjoying making fun of it.

"Is this supposed to be," Nursey starts, cocking his head sideways at the screen. "Man, I don't even know. Horror? Comedy?"

"Gross," Will supplies. There's some weird murky water that's supposed to be a swamp; Will's never seen an actual swamp, but he's still not convinced. "I don't think it's anything it was trying to be."

"Well, it's a movie," Nursey says. "It hit literally the lowest bar a movie can hit: yes, you successfully made a movie. Congrats, man."

They watch in silence for a while, munching on the popcorn and occasionally laughing at some of the ridiculous shit on the screen. It takes Will almost half the movie's length to realise that he's the only one commenting anymore; sure enough, when he glances over, Nursey has his head against the back of the sofa, eyes closed. The popcorn bowl is in real danger of falling to the floor, so Will reaches over to rescue it, expecting Nursey to wake up. Instead, Nursey's hand falls from the brim of the bowl onto Will's leg.

Well. That's… a thing.

Will lowers the volume on the movie and just kind of creeper-watches Nursey for a little while. He's out cold; probably tired from driving, Will guesses, even though it's really not that far to travel. Whatever the reason, though, he's for sure down for the count. Will's surprised to find that he's not really annoyed.

He pulls his phone out of his pocket, careful not to wake Nursey. This is, somehow, Chowder's fault; it might be ten in Maine, but that means it's only seven in California, and Chowder apparently doesn't have a little kid to take care of.

  
  


For half a minute, Will wonders if this was somehow Chowder's plan; he types half of the question before deciding that he might not want the answer to that. And besides, Will has already made kind of an idiot of himself in front of Chowder today; he doesn't exactly want to do it again, if he's wrong.

Better to wait, he decides, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He can ask Nursey tomorrow, which, his default for things should never be "ask Nursey," but this is some sort of special situation. Clearly.

But, Will thinks as the movie goes on and on without any sort of hope of resolution, it kind of has been his default for things. He hadn't said no when Nursey wanted to come, and had kind of relied on them being able to come up with a plan together. He probably would have called Nursey on his own if Nursey hadn't called him when he had, because-

Well, Will thinks, blinking. Shit. Apparently while he wasn't paying attention, he sort of started trusting Nursey to help him deal with whatever was coming his way. That's… that's new, he thinks. He trusts Nursey, and they don't annoy the living shit out of each other like they had at the start of Samwell, at least not most of the time.

That's something to think about, Will thinks. But maybe tomorrow, because the credits are finally rolling on the movie, and he's glad it's over even if he spent most of the last half of it inside his own head.

"Hey, man," Will says, reaching over to jostle Nursey's arm. "Movie's over."

Nursey blinks sleepily. "Wha?"

"Come on, sleep," Will says, and god, he can hear the fondness in his own voice now that he's listening for it.

"Sleep," Nursey agrees, rolling his shoulders to pop them. Will makes a face, but Nursey staggers up off of the sofa, and Will has to shoot up to balance him so he doesn't fall right back into it. It really is a shitty sofa.

Will sets Nursey up in the bathroom down the hall from his room and goes into the closet to dig out the air mattress. He drops it by his bedroom door before heading into the bathroom, where Nursey's finishing up. "Give me a few," Will says. "Won't be long."

"Kay," Nursey mumbles, like he hadn't actually woken up between the sofa and now. He stumbles his way out the door, and Will takes a moment to roll his eyes and grin before brushing his teeth and washing his face.

He stops dead in his doorway when he gets there, though. Nursey is passed out facedown on his bed, curled into the wall with the sheet pulled halfway up his torso. Will looks down at the bag holding the air mattress, then back at Nursey.

Setting up the mattress would wake Nursey up, he decides. There's enough room to just share. Just for tonight.

Besides, he thinks as he climbs in and wiggles his way under the sheet, the air mattress isn't very comfortable. This is the best option for both of them.

-0-

Will wakes up slowly.

He tends to be the kind of person who startles awake; years of travelling hockey teams taught him not to trust that you won't wake up with dicks drawn all over your face if you're not careful. This morning, though, he floats into awareness more than snaps, and it doesn't exactly take him long to figure out why.

 _Do not freak out,_ he orders himself sternly. Sure, he's in bed with Nursey, and Nursey's arm is around his waist and Nursey's legs are all tangled up in his, but. But that's not a reason to freak out, nor is the fact that he kind of is comfortable with the whole thing.

Will might blame Chowder for everything about his life right now, but really, he's pretty sure nobody could be mad at him for that.

"Morning," Nursey mumbles into Will's ear, and something in Will's stomach squirms, maybe at the proximity and the low sound of Nursey's voice, or maybe at the way Nursey's elbow feels way hotter than it possibly should where it's resting against Will's hip.

Will forces himself to swallow, to take a breath. "Um. Hi?"

Nursey makes a humming sound. "So what happened in the second part of that movie?"

Will kind of wants to point out the way they're currently wound around each other, because really? This is the conversation they’re going to have first thing in the morning? Is this really the most opportune time or, really, _placement_ for-

"Nothing good," Will says, because he remembers jack shit about the movie, but he’s sure he’s correct, _No freaking out,_ he reminds himself. "I mean, we wanted to watch a terrible movie, and we managed to watch a terrible movie."

"You managed," Nursey reminds him. "I think I mighta won, falling asleep like that."

"You might've," Will agrees. "By the way, you're a furnace. How do you put off so much heat?"

"Gotta go to bed early to be this hot," Nursey says smugly, but then he laughs and wrestles the comforter down. It's a lot more bearable when it's just the sheet.

They talk for a while. Will brings up the possibility that Chowder might be fucking with them on purpose; Nursey reminds him that Bitty was singularly unhelpful and might be in on whatever it is, too. Conversation shifts to what they're going to do with their day, and Will slowly forgets why he was sort of freaking out.

Finally, Nursey squeezes Will's hip a little and rolls away. "Shower," he says simply, and then he grabs his bag and walks out into the hallway.

Will flops onto his back and stares at the ceiling, doing his best to concentrate on their plans for the day instead of letting himself wonder what the fuck that whole thing was.

Fishing. Yeah. Better to think about fishing.

The afternoon is actually super great; Nursey would be a menace on a boat, but fishing from the pier is apparently exactly his speed. It's not that Will has seen Nursey on a boat, but he has seen Nursey accidentally take a kid down with his hockey bag because he couldn't control its swing. He also walks into door frames and drops things when he's not paying close enough attention, so Will's certain that he'd have to handcuff Nursey to the cabin just to make sure he didn't fall overboard if they ever went out to fish.

Nursey's really into casting his line and laying back, though, which isn't really a huge surprise. He props himself back on his elbows and stares out over the water, sometimes looking up at the clouds, sometimes gazing over the shoreline.

"This place is, like," he says, shifting so he can gesture at the coast. There's a spot a little ways away where the shore juts out and the treeline spikes towards the water, and Will's always thought it was pretty cool. Nursey stares at it and lets his hand drop. "It's chill, watching the waves on the shore, hearing the sounds of it while you can smell it. The whole thing is just, like, such an _experience_. Way more intense than I thought."

"It's fishing," Will says after a minute, because he's not sure how to respond to Nursey's declaration. He's always been partial to the coast, but he's _from_ here.

"If people don't feel something special here, there's no poetry in their souls," Nursey says, as if Will hadn't spoken. He turns to look over at Will after another moment, grinning. "And the fishing, man. Super chill too."

"I'm going to push you in the water," Will says, rolling his eyes, but he's grinning right back.

They don't catch anything worth keeping, but it's great to be outside. They pack it up when the sun starts to set, and by the time they get home Will just calls for pizza, and they settle onto the sofa and pick out another awful movie.

"Dudley Do-Right," Will says when the movie starts. "Something tells me we're making a terrible mistake."

"Probably," Nursey agrees. "But also probably not as big a mistake as Brendan Fraser made starring in it."

"True," Will concedes.

The movie is, predictably, not good, but it's a lot of fun making fun of it, just as it had been last night. Will's a lot more comfortable tonight, too, which is what he blames when he wakes to the feeling of Nursey jostling his shoulder.

"Movie's over, man," he says quietly. "C'mon, up. Time to sleep."

Will doesn't even think of protesting when Nursey helps him into bed and then climbs in after him. Whatever. It's not a big deal.

-0-

When Will wakes up in the morning, Nursey’s got an arm slung over his waist and they’re tucked together tip to toe. He keeps himself still while he places things together in his head: fishing, pizza, movie. Sleep, again in the same bed, and again he's comfortable when he wakes up.

He realises pretty abruptly that Nursey’s thumb is dragging back and forth against his hip  
gently, like he thinks Will is still sleeping but wants to... whatever, do that. It's a weirdly intimate thing, Will thinks, and suddenly he isn't sure what to do, if Nursey wants him to know he's doing it.

He mumbles something under his breath and moves around a little. He's not trying to get away, not really, but he's trying to give Nursey the chance to stop, to think he's gotten away with… whatever it is. Will's not sure where to put this whole cuddling in bed thing, honestly.

Nursey's thumb stops moving, but he stays right where he is, curled around Will, pressed together in the bed that's really way too small for them to be sharing. He doesn't say anything, and Will doesn't, either; there's a stalemate that doesn't really feel awkward, both of them just laying there in the silence and waiting for the other to break it.

It's almost ten minutes before Will sighs. "Let me up," he says. "Bathroom."

Nursey squeezes his hip, just like he had yesterday, before he rolls away.

There's a moment when he walks back into the bedroom where Will considers crawling back into bed with Nursey, but there's a line there and he knows it. Instead, he kicks at the end of the bed. "Gym today," he says. "I want to get some work done so I don't feel like I've eaten an entire pizza."

"It wasn't an entire pizza," Nursey says, grinning at him without making any move to get up. "It was, like, three-quarters of a pizza. And some garlic fries."

"You're not helping," Will points out. "Also, you're stuck here by yourself with the terrible movie collection if you don't get up, because I'm going to the gym whether you want to go or not."

"You're the worst," Nursey grumbles, but he gets out of bed and heads to the bathroom.

Going to the gym is great. Will loves working out; he's got a summer schedule that Coach Hall helped him draw up, a way to put back on some muscle without worrying about overworking himself. He likes being able to lose himself, a little, in the way his arms and legs burn, in the sweat that rolls down his back.

"Bet I can do more squats than you," Nursey says when they're both towards the end of their workouts. It's been a challenge between them, off and on, since they started training together at Samwell; usually one of them brings it up right when they start, but Will's not going to turn Nursey down now just because he's a little worn out.

"Bet you can't," he counters, and they grin fiercely at each other while Will motions one of the trainers over to count, and also to make sure Nursey doesn't cheat. Or maybe Will. They're both in it to win it, and supervision keeps them both honest.

Fifteen minutes later, Will concedes, but only because he can feel the burn high in his calves that means he could keep pushing if he doesn't mind regretting it later. He'd keep going if it was a game, if it mattered, but he can swallow his pride during the offseason. Nursey smiles smugly and does three more squats before collapsing to the mat beside Will.

"I win," he proclaims, and Will rolls his eyes and keeps stretching. He can be gracious. He _can_.

Two hours later, after they've showered and gone back to the house and set up on the sofa for a binge of _Jersey Shore,_ Will's glad he chose to be gracious.

"Shit," Nursey says suddenly, jackknifing up off the sofa and bending. He starts rubbing furiously at his calf, digging his thumbs in and pressing, and Will watches for a moment as Nursey's shoulders draw up tight and tense.

"Cramp," Will guesses, and Nursey hisses out a breath and gives him a tight, terse nod. "Sucks, man."

"Yeah," Nursey grits out. He's still hunched over, and Will makes a split-second decision, grabbing his Gatorade and holding it out.

"Drink," he orders. "And gimme your leg."

"What," Nursey says, looking up.

Will waves the bottle impatiently. "I can get a better angle, and you can rehydrate. Get with it."

Once Nursey takes the bottle from him, Will climbs off of the sofa and onto the floor. Nursey's clenching the bottle in his hands when he glances up. "Breathe," he advises, and then he runs his hands along the back of Nursey's calf, feeling for the best place to dig in. He flexes his fingers and starts rubbing, ignoring Nursey's swearing mostly because Nursey's not kicking at him, so it can't be the kind of swearing that means _stop immediately_.

Will glances up every couple of minutes, watching as Nursey slowly lets his grip on the Gatorade relax, then as he drinks it. It takes about ten minutes, but finally Nursey says, "Hey. That's, uh, that's good."

"You sure?" Will asks, pausing without moving his hands. There's a flush high on Nursey's cheeks, but Will forces himself to not dwell on that, to instead take in the way his shoulders have lost a lot of their tension and how his hands are resting in his lap instead of holding onto something for dear life.

"I'm good," Nursey repeats. "I want to stretch it out, I think. Can you get me an Advil or something?"

"Yeah, good plan," Will agrees. He hangs in the doorway for a minute, watching as Nursey carefully stands up and walks a few steps. He doesn't seem to be in any immediate danger of falling over, so Will goes upstairs to the bathroom to grab a couple of Advil from the medicine cabinet. He swings through the kitchen for more Gatorade, and by the time he gets back to the living room, Nursey is back on the sofa.

"Here," Will says, handing over the Gatorade and Advil. He sits while Nursey swallows the pills, then nudges him in the side. "Swing your legs up."

"The hell," Nursey says, clearly a little startled.

"Up," Will repeats, patting his own lap. "If you keep them stretched out, they're less likely to cramp. Don't make it weird, Nurse."

"You did that all on your own, Poindexter," Nursey shoots back, but he moves so he can get his legs across Will's lap. Will doesn't let himself hesitate before letting his hands rest on Nursey's legs, and he raises an eyebrow at Nursey when he just sits there in silence.

"Let's start the show," Will suggests. "I'm so here for watching this slow-motion car crash."

"It's so terrible," Nursey agrees, and then Jersey Shore starts, and the awkwardness fades as they watch. It's not a good show, not really, but it's fun to watch. Will's fond of the way they're all clearly friends, even if they sometimes seem too stupid to live.

By the time they're ready to eat dinner, Nursey says his legs are feeling totally fine. He gets up and does a toe touch to prove it, so Will doesn't push him. Will makes chicken and pasta, and it's almost like they're back at Samwell, eating together after a good workout, except for how it's totally different at the same time. Occasionally, Will hates the fact that he can't come up with good comparisons. This is for sure one of those times.

"More _Jersey Shore_ ," Nursey declares when they finish the dishes. Will doesn't have a better suggestion, so they sit on the sofa and put it back on.

Nursey swings his legs back into Will's lap as the show starts again, and he doesn't look away from the screen even when Will pokes him in the leg. After a few minutes, Will decides that he's the one making it weird now, so he just lets his hands fall still and tunes into the show.

When they climb into bed together later that night, Will makes sure he's the big spoon. Nursey just shifts until he's comfortable, apparently, making Will's hand drop to rest on his stomach, and then he mumbles "G'night" and is asleep before Will can say anything in response, like how he maybe hadn't meant to-

Except he had, kind of, and now he's here. Will closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and lets himself fall asleep.

-0-

The third time they wake up in the same bed, Will's forehead is pressed into Nursey’s curls, and at some point in the night they laced their fingers together, and Will thinks, _okay, this might actually need to be talked about with an actual adult kind of conversation_.

He might panic a little bit. He definitely rolls out of bed and lands on the floor.

There’s silence from the bed for a moment before Nursey rolls over and peers down. "Guess I’m gonna be the one helping you around all day, huh? Fair’s fair, I guess."

Will takes a quick inventory. He didn't fall far, not really; the only thing hurt is his pride. And, okay, his tailbone’s a little sore, but it’s not like he’s gonna ask Nursey to massage it for him. He opens his mouth to tell Nursey he's okay, but what comes out is, "Are we flirting?"

Shit, shit, that’s not how he wanted to start this. At the very least, this conversation probably deserves to be had while both of them are wearing pants. Well, Will thinks, it's out there now, pants or no pants, so he doesn't look away from Nursey's face.

Nursey just blinks down at him. "Wait, we’re gonna talk about it?"

"I mean. we could just be... bed sharing," Will says, waving vaguely at the bed. "That’s a thing, right? People do… that."

Nursey rolls back out of sight, then sits up properly and holds his hand out to help Will off the floor. "Showers, clothes, breakfast," Nursey says decisively. "Then we can talk."

That’s reasonable, Will figures. And hey, it includes pants, so clearly they're on the same page at least a little bit.

He thinks while he's in the shower; it's not that he needs some sort of game plan for the conversation, except for how he totally needs a game plan. He's not even sure what their conversation should be about, not fully, but while he's rinsing himself off he thinks about Nursey's thumb rubbing against his hip, about the way their fingers had tangled together in the night, and he makes up his mind.

Yeah, okay. So he's into Nursey, and he kind of wants this whole conversation thing to end up with them maybe dating. Or something. It's at least sort of a plan, Will figures.

Will doesn't take a super long shower, but Nursey's already in the kitchen when Will gets down there. He nods at a bowl of oatmeal on the table, so Will sits and digs in. It's completely, awkwardly silent while they scrape their bowls out, but Will figures that he brought it up in the first place, so it's Nursey's turn now.

Except that they just keep sitting there, and Will is suddenly reminded of the fact that he is, actually, better at life and whatever than Nursey is, and he’s known this for a full year. Even if he likes Nursey now, this is still a fact, so he takes a deep breath and looks up at the ceiling. "So. Are we?"

"Uh, not right now?" Nursey tries.

Will can't help the quick grin he flashes at the ceiling. "But we were. We have been."

Nursey clearly hesitates before answering. "We haven’t... not been."

"You’re the worst at this," Will says flatly, finally looking at Nursey. He's got that flush back on his cheeks, and Will lets himself think about it this time, lets himself wonder if it's Nursey being embarrassed or Nursey wondering if he's giving too much away.

"What do you want me to say?" Nursey replies after a moment.

"How about giving me a straight answer?" Will shoots back.

Nursey snorts. "Not so straight, bro."

"The _worst_ ," Will repeats, but now he’s sort of grinning, and Nursey is too. "Okay, so, we've been flirting. Is that... something we want to, like, pursue?"

"I," Nursey says, then pauses. Will keeps quiet, because this is really something he needs an answer to. "I think… yeah. It could… yeah. I want to."

"Thank fuck," Will says, laughing a little as he slumps towards the table. "I would hate to have gone through this entire conversation if we didn't want to, you know, do whatever."

"Maybe we should talk about 'whatever,'" Nursey says, giving it finger quotes.

Will sighs. "Look, I… don't date much. Haven't ever, really. So I'm good with, like, taking things slowly and just talking about shit as it happens?"

"Yes," Nursey says immediately. "Yeah, let's do that. Let's for sure do that."

"I mean, we can talk about all the 'whatever' you want," Will says, finger-quoting right back at him. "This has been one of the least comfortable conversations of my life, but if you want to keep talking-"

"Oh my god, shut up," Nursey groans. "Can I take it back? Can I not want to keep 'doing whatever' with you?"

Will leans back in his chair and smirks. "The choice is yours. I'm up for…" He pauses a little, watching as Nursey realises what he's going to say, and then delivering his ending just as Nursey opens his mouth to stop him. "...whatever."

"You know what," Nursey says as he starts to laugh, "this is probably gonna work out just fine."

-0-

They're getting ready for bed later that night when both of their phones ping at the same time. Will raises an eyebrow, but Nursey just shrugs and grabs for his phone. He snorts after reading it and tosses it to Will.

  
  


"What do we even tell him?" Will asks, tossing the phone back. "No murder, lots of, what?"

Nursey purses his lips and looks at Will, then at the bed. "Well."

"Don't you 'well' me, Nurse," Will says. "More words. _Helpful_ words."

"We could just… send a picture," Nursey says. "In a few minutes, y'know. When we're more ready for bed."

Will stares for a few seconds before what Nursey's saying clicks in his head. "You're kind of the worst," he says admiringly. "It's perfect."

"Totally," Nursey agrees. "C'mon, teeth."

They brush their teeth and wash their faces, and then they climb into bed and curl around each other. Will cedes big spoon duties to Nursey, who tosses one arm above their heads and tangles their legs together beneath the sheet, pressing in close. He reaches over Will to grab his phone and fiddles with it for a second before holding it up above them.

"Say cheese," he deadpans.

Will turns his body as much as he's able so he can grin at Nursey, who ducks in to press his lips to Will's temple right as the flash goes off.

  
  


"Done," Nursey says, sounding satisfied. "Now I'm thinking we should turn our phones off and just sleep, yeah?"

"Absolutely," Will agrees. "Do it. It's done."

They spend a few minutes snickering in the dark; one of them will start and set the other off, which isn't really conducive to getting to sleep, but after a while Will fades off. He doesn't stir at all during the night, and when he wakes up in the morning, he isn't actually surprised to find that he and Nursey are holding hands again.

"Hey," Will mutters.

"Hey," Nursey answers. He still sounds half-asleep, and Will grins a little into the pillow as Nursey swipes his thumb across the back of Will's hand. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," Will answers. "You?"

"Good," Nursey affirms. "Let's fish again today. Fishing was rad."

Will groans. "Rad? Are you for real right now?"

"And you're still in bed with me," Nursey points out, but he yawns at the end, so he doesn't manage to sound smug about it.

"That's gonna change," Will promises, but he squeezes Nursey's hand before he lets go and sits up. "Fishing is totally something we can do, as long as there's no, like, Chowder-splosion in our texts."

"Right," Nursey drawls. "Want to see what happened on that front?"

"Let's get up first," Will suggests. He's not nervous; Chowder's not going to react badly. Still, though. "Breakfast, showers, you know."

"Sure," Nursey says.

They get dressed and eat; Will pulls the fishing gear out of its closet while Nursey sticks the dishes in the dishwasher. He's sitting at the kitchen table when Will walks back in, both of their phones on the table in front of him.

"Ready?"

"Yeah," Will says. "Let's do it, man."

Will's phone boots up immediately; Nursey's crashes when he turns it on, which Will laughs at until his own phone starts pinging.

And pinging, and pinging.

"Well," Will says, looking at his phone and taking a deep breath. "I guess he got the picture."

There are thirteen texts and a voicemail from Chowder; there's also a bunch from Bitty, and one each from Ransom and Holster that just say _BRUH_. There's also a voicemail from Jack, which Will hesitates before clicking into and putting on speaker.

"Whatever you two have done, you’re no longer my problem, but please stop making Bittle make those noises," Jack says, but his voice is clearly at least a little amused. It's not the _bag skates until you puke_ tone of voice, at least. "It’s very late and I’m trying to get to sleep. I've been told we're going to a fair in the morning, and I'll need my strength."

That's the whole message, and Will just stares at his phone for a solid ten seconds before cracking up.

"Future NHL Rookie of the Year, Jack Zimmermann," he chokes out, and that's it, Nursey's laughing too, because their friends are the best but also kind of the worst.

Will's pretty okay with that, as it turns out.

**Author's Note:**

> amount of time spent on rotten tomatoes looking up ratings of awful movies: LOTS.
> 
> endless thanks to stormylullabye for beta reading even though she's not in this fandom. best sister. also, thanks to ari for naming dex's brother harold. what a terrible name for a modern twenty-year-old. i love it. :D
> 
> i know zero things about lobster fishing, so i substituted in what i know about regular fishing when necessary. if i made lobster-related mistakes, let me know!
> 
>  ~~if i had any artistic talent at all, i'd've added the photo nursey took to the last chat, ahaha. unfortunately i have no such skills. IMAGINE.~~ the amazingly talented chofee has drawn the selfie! [reposted in the story with permission, but also posted originally here.](http://chofee.tumblr.com/post/147502655900/that-selfie-from-got-those-wayfarers-on-by)
> 
> [follow me on tumblr](http://somehowunbroken.tumblr.com/) for theories and headcanons about these two losers and many photosets of hockey players.


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